Updated Monday 19th May 1997
Subject: New crop
circle found in Michigan
(need research assistance!)
Sent: 02/12 7:48 AM Received: 02/18 12:43 AM
From: JWILSON@EMUVAX.EMICH.EDU
To: RONR@ECO-NET.COM
Dear Ron,
I know I haven't written to you in a while, mostly because I've been swamped at school both teaching and taking classes, but I hope you might be able to help me out.I think that I have come across what might be the most bizarre crop circle case in history (as if crop circles themselves aren't already bizarre enough)!
This past week, I received an e-mail message from a housewife in Michigan (who wishes to remain anonymous). She told me that two years ago during the Spring, she and her son - who is of high school age - spotted something she thought was strange. Close to her community, along the side of the road, was what she described as a "circular burned or charred area of ground" -- not in a farmer's field, but on Michigan State Park land. She and her son both noted the oddity, but did not stop to investigate. When they drove by the area during the summer, however, a circle of wheat had replaced the blackened area -- and it was "swirled down just like a crop circle". This woman wanted to know if I wanted to visit the site, because she claimed you could still see the area (even after two years!).
I thought that this was a really strange claim, considering that in the 10+ years I have been studying crop circles - including well over a thousand cases - I had never heard of such a case: a circle of wheat growing up in essentially a scrub field (just grasses, shrubs, and trees). At least I thought it sounded bizarre. This woman also was afraid that she would come off sounding like some nut, and tried to assure me that she was not (she isn't!!). I met with her and her son on Friday, Feb.7, and she took me and my friend Jason Braden out to the site. It is exactly how she described it!! Right on the edge of this state parkland, in a scrub grass field, about 100-200 feet from the edge of the road, a 39 foot circle of wheat has grown. This is the second season of wheat there -- the first season's wheat was swirled down counter-clockwise, pressed flat to the ground! Jason and I were dumbfounded. I still can't believe it, I've never seen anything like it, or heard of anything like it, either.
The lady left with her son, and Jason and I searched the area. We noticed the usual things right away: power lines run almost directly overhead, the circle lies at the bottom of a "punchbowl"- shaped feature of the land, and there is a lake less that a quarter-mile away. But more amazingly, we walked over the top of the hill, and a few hundred yards away, at the bottom of another basin, were TWO more circles of wheat growing up from this scrub-grass land. One of the circle was larger than the first, the just smaller. And the same thing: a second season of wheat had grown through the swirled-down crop circle of the season before. Power lines almost directly overhead, the nearby lake, and both these circles were at the bottom of this basin/"punchbowl".
Jason and I are NOT going to divulge the location of these circles, until after the weather gets warmer, and the area thaws out (there is still snow on the ground in some places) -- because we want to carefully study these circles, and not damage them while they are still frozen and brittle. Also, we don't want a zillion yahoos going out to the site and tramping it all to pieces. BUT, I could use some advice and some help on this case!! Has anyone ever reported anything like this in the past? I'd like to talk to the most knowledgeable researchers on this one, but I don't have really any contact with any of them (namely people like Colin Andrews, Peter Sorenson, George Wingfield, Busty Taylor, and nameless others!) -- I'd even like to talk to Dr. Terence Meaden even though he swears he will not get involved with this stuff at all anymore, Anyone know how I can contact him?
Hope you can help, I will stay in touch,
The pictures of the single circle are showing you what the view looks like from the nearby road. One of the pictures of the single circle has me in the centre looking at the swirl underneath.
There are also two pictures of the 2 circles side by side which are located several hundred yards away from the single one.
All images copyright to Heather Tarvis and Jeffrey Wilson
Jeffrey M. Wilson jwilson@online.emich.edu
Sherzer Observatory at Eastern Michigan University (313)455-2692 (home)
(313)487-3033 (work -- best bet, Monday-Friday)
11737 Amherst Court Plymouth, Michigan 48170
P.S. I've sent this message out to a number of people, hoping to get a response. If I hadn't seen this myself, I wouldn't had believed it!
